More photo-less food…

December 30, 2010

Aaaaannnnndddd, we’re cooking again.

Actually, we cooked last night, for me. NS did not want chicken chili last night; he wanted pizza. So we ordered pizza. I did not want pizza, so I made myself some potato salad, some Waldorf salad, and two or three slices off the Christmas ham. It was most excellent, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, albeit I ate way too late and it didn’t sit well when I went to bed.

And today I had black bean soup from the Culinary District, which was quite excellent, and I’m still full from that, and I’m cooking the chicken chili for NS. He allowed it smelled good.

Anything with cumin and peppers smells good.

I will report. Although I don’t expect I’ll eat too much.

Menu planning for the weekend: I picked up some par-baked cheese bread down at the Culinary District, and figured I’d cheat and have that with bacon jam as opposed to the planned cheese biscuits. Because they’d baked up some of that stuff and let me tell you — it is To Die For. So that’s breakfast.

Tomorrow evening, I’m going to cook a flank steak, which will go into the marinade later tonight. Simple marinade, just balsamic and olive oil and meat tenderizer, sear it to the medium rare stage tomorrow night. And I’m going to make a risotto recipe I’d forgotten I’d saved — risotto with pears and gorgonzola dolce. Does that not sound wonderful? And probably some curried fruit, just because I feel like it. And that sounds like a fine New Year’s Eve dinner, plus it’s a big damn flank steak and will provide leftovers for sandwiches.

Saturday’s munchy stuff — almond-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon, cheese, olives, pickles, etc. Maybe coconut macaroons. And I need to make cranberry salad either tomorrow or Saturday. Main meal on Saturday will be pork loin, with black-eyed peas and cabbage to meet all the New Year’s requirements.

Sunday I think I’m going to make carbonnades a la flamande. Just because I can. Or we may eat leftover pork loin and Christmas ham, which is probably the smarter thing, as I am not too far from getting the fridge way too damn full. I also have a wonderful new calzone recipe, and the makings for that.

So many meals. So little time.

Other assorted year-end thoughts:

The last lab in the country to process Kodachrome is closing down today. I never shot a lot of Kodachrome — I was much more a neg than slide film shooter. Still, it’s a kinda sad moment. Not to mention Paul Simon’s been in my head ever since I read that this morning.

What’s-her-name the “I am not a witch” Delaware senatorial candidate, contends charges that she spent some of her seven mill in campaign money on personal expenses, like paying bills, are completely false and political in nature. Of course, never mind the sistah-gal has never had a real job and has been reported to have dome similar stuff in the past. The bigger question is, how does a woman who is so obviously bat-shit crazy raise Seven Freakin’ Million Dollars for a political campaign? I do believe this must be a sign of the impending Apocalypse. Terminal stupidity is as good a reason for the end of the world as anything else, I reckon.

Tennessee is about to play in the Music City Bowl. OK, so they just got to go to Nashvegas. After the way they melted down early in the season, it’s a minor miracle they’re in a bowl at all. (My Razorpiggies will play Dec. 4 in New Orleans, and I do so wish I was headed down there. Oh, well.)

This has been a tough year. I won’t be sorry to see the last of it. Looking for a better 2011 for me, you and y’mama ‘n em.